From Lausanne to Beijing

This Fall, my "Colonial Vegetables Sewn Sampler Book" was included in "From Lausanne to Beijing: The 6th International Fiber Arts Biennale" curated by Professor Lin Lecheng of Tsinghua University and exhibited at the Henan Museum of Art, Henan Province, China. The fabric book includes a sound element with two inset speakers in the front and the back. These hook to an mp3 player that sits under the stand/table as an amplifier magnifies the sound as the book is read.



On Monday September 13th, I wrapped my beloved book round and round with bubble wrap, stuck it in a box and shipped it off to the Henan museum.

I started to become a little concerned about 4 days ago when it occurred to me that the piece still hadn't returned. I knew it had been shipped by the careful exhibition coordinator, Mei, but it hadn't yet arrived! The day after I expressed this concern aloud (something along the lines of "I'm never going to see it again!), I came home to find the slumped, bedraggled box in the foyer of my ice-glazed apartment building. It had a tight belt of strapping, tape a-plenty, and Chinese and English writing all over the place. The poor box had traveled all of the way from China to our old beach house in Florida before being forwarded here. I tore it open like a 4-year old on Christmas morning, and found, underneath the book, a surprise copy of the gorgeous show catalog.